The WaitOff
by Nomi nomnom
Summary: Valkyrie gets hurt, and Tanith has to deal with two Val-smitten boys. Oneshot, implied Valduggery. R R would be fantastic, thanks :D


**So, while i'm thinking of how to continue my other story, i thought i would finish my older one. I'm not sure it turned out exactly as i envisioned it in September 2011, but hey.  
It's set after Death Bringer, and they have somehow managed to get Tanith back to normal. Please R+R :D**

**All characters belong to Derek Landy.**

* * *

It was 6:30, and Tanith was speeding along the road trying to get to Roarhaven as fast as possible. Ghastly had called 10 minutes ago to say that Skulduggery had arrived at the Sanctuary carrying Valkyrie in his arms. Nye had been summoned, and was now giving Val a quick assessment. Tanith pulled up outside the Sanctuary and jumped off her bike. She ran inside and Ghastly caught her in his arms as she hurried into the waiting bay outside the operating theatre. He had swapped his Elder robes for a well fitted suit. Tanith nestled her head into Ghastly's shoulder and breathed deeply.

"Is she ok?" she mumbled into his shoulder. Ghastly sighed.

"If she is, you couldn't tell by looking at her," Ghastly hugged her tighter, "She looks bad Tanith."

Tanith breathed in shakily. "Can I see her?"

Ghastly looked slightly hesitant. "I don't know if that would be the best idea…" Tanith cut him off by grabbing his shoulders tightly.

"Please?" Ghastly sighed and nodded shortly. He walked to the operating theatre door and knocked. Clarabelle opened it and for once, she didn't look so cheerful.

"Oh, it's Elder Bespoke," she turned around and walked back into the room. Nye looked up and smiled sickly.

"Ah, your _Eminence_," it emphasised the word, almost as if it was mocking him. "Is something the matter?"

"Miss Low would like to see the patient," he invited Tanith into the room, and she walked in timidly. Ghastly looked around. "Where's Skulduggery?" He suddenly looked concerned. "You are not to be unsupervised at any time!"

"He went somewhere. He said he would be back." Nye gritted its teeth. Skulduggery and Nye did not get along.

"Good." Ghastly sighed, and was about to continue when Tanith let out a soft moan. Ghastly went over to her, and put his arm around her. Then he looked at Valkyrie, lying on the table in the middle of the room.

She was covered in bruises and tiny, red cuts that resembled papercuts, but deeper. Her torso had been sliced from top to bottom, almost like someone had been dissecting her, only the cut was jagged and the flesh surrounding the cut looked like it had been cut with a chainsaw. Ghastly hugged Tanith closer, and looked up at Nye.

"You can fix her, right?" Nye shrugged and smiled again.

"Of course I can, Elder Bespoke," Nye blinked innocently, its punctured eyelids covering its milky eyes for just under a second. "This is nothing compared to when she was attacked by that girl, Melancholia." It indicated the cut on Valkyrie's torso. "The only challenge will be to fix it neatly. This is a very messy cut." it tutted, and pushed Ghastly in the direction of the door. Ghastly steered Tanith to the door, and together they walked out. They went back into the waiting area, and sat down. Tanith looked at Ghastly.

"Who did it?" she suddenly looked tired. "She looks like she was attacked by a newspaper factory. With a chainsaw." Ghastly looked at her seriously.

"I don't know, Skull wouldn't tell me." He sighed, and Tanith kissed him on the cheek gently.

"I hope she'll be okay though," she leant into him and sighed, "Nye's pretty good."

"That it is," Ghastly sighed as well, and was about to get up and go back to work when the door opened, and a pale-faced 19 year old boy scurried in. At the same time, a boy with blonde, spikey hair appeared in the door way, rubbing his cheek. Tanith rolled her eyes and gave a pleading look to Ghastly, who smiled genuinely and said "Have fun!" With that, he walked out the door, nodding curtly to both boys.

"Fletcher. Caelan." he strode out majestically, and shut the door behind him. There was silence.

* * *

Tanith sighed and looked around. Fletcher and Caelan glared at each other. Then Caelan leapt, and Fletcher disappeared and reappeared in the seat next to Tanith. He edged closer to her as the vampire turned around.

"Oh for goodness sake!" Tanith stood up and ran at the opposite wall, then _up_ the opposite wall, and onto the ceiling, where she sat down. Her tousled blonde hair hung down towards the floor, so she tied it up in a ponytail. Caelan growled.

"You are a boy," the vampire spoke softly and angrily, "You know nothing of love!"

Tanith almost gagged. "_Seriously_? You're seriously going to argue about this, _here_?" Fletcher looked up at her.

"He hit me," his voice sounded rough and angry, unlike usual. "He hit me, and ran up here." He rubbed his cheek subconsciously, and crossed his arms over his faded T-shirt. Caelan growled and pounced at Fletcher, who disappeared and reappeared behind him, then sat down. Caelan sat down opposite Fletcher, and Tanith moved so that she was sitting on the ceiling between them.

"She deserves more than what you can give her," Caelan looked at Fletcher, "she deserves me."

Fletcher roared and stood up. Tanith dropped from the ceiling and tackled him just as he launched himself at the vampire. She pinned him against the wall and held his arms behind him. The vampire laughed quietly.

"You're lucky the blonde is here," Caelan licked his lips, "or I would have torn you to shreds. Not that anyone would care."

Fletcher stopped struggling and went limp. Tanith cautiously took the pressure off him and pulled him lightly around to face her. His shoulders were hunched, and he hung his head, avoiding her gaze.

"You know that's not true," she said quietly to him. "Val would care. You know she would…"

"She wouldn't." Fletch looked up, and his eyes were wet, but he wasn't crying. "She dumped me. she wouldn't care if I died or lived." Tanith felt sorry for the boy, he seemed so upset. She slapped him across the face.

"She would care, she _does_ care!" with that, she pushed him into the nearest seat, and strode over to Caelan who was reading a knitting magazine. She jabbed him in the chest.

"Hey, old man! Stop whatever you're playing at, and get out of here." She pulled him up by the collar of his shirt and shoved him towards the door. He turned around and sat down in his chair again. She growled and leaned over him. "I don't care about what you think, but you're only alliance in this sanctuary is with Val, and she is presently lying in that room unconscious! And even then, she led you into the sea. How you survived, I don't care, but I don't particularly think she wants to see you."

Caelan roared and jumped up, aiming a bite at where Tanith's head would have been had Fletcher not teleported her to the other side of the room. She struggled for balance for a second, then straightened up and scowled. She pulled out her phone and looked up Skulduggery's number, then put the phone to her ear and waited.

"Who're you calling?" Fletcher was instantly curious. Tanith rolled her eyes pointedly at him and watched as Caelan slowly sank back into his chair with vengeance on his face. She then continued waiting.

"Damn it," she cursed and slapped her phone at the wall. "He's not answering."

"Who's not answering?" Fletcher was still curious. Tanith shot him a Look.

"Who do _you_ think?" Tanith sat in the closest chair and rubbed her eyes. Fletcher shrugged, and leant back in his chair in a sulk.

"Well," Tanith took a deep breath and spoke to the room in general, "Since Skulduggery won't answer his phone, and I can't be bothered to argue with you both, you can wait it off here." Fletcher and Caelan looked at her incredulously.

"But-"

"How dare you-"

"SHUT UP!" Tanith roared, and even Caelan shrank back a little. Tanith took a deep breath and continued. "Skulduggery is the only one who knows what happened to Val and I'm going to wait here for him, and if either of you make a sound, I will…" She thought for a moment, struggling to find something that would threaten the vampire. "I will call Nye in here and give you to it for its experiments."

Caelan growled quietly and Fletcher gulped and went pale. Tanith, satisfied that she had quieted the two, grabbed the closest magazine and began reading.

* * *

Five minutes passed.

Fletcher coughed quietly into his elbow and Caelan growled loudly. Tanith held up a finger.

"Uh." The boys looked at her and went back to silently staring daggers at each other.

* * *

Ten minutes.

Twenty minutes.

One hour.

Two hours.

Three hours.

Tanith looked up at the clock. She looked at the pile of magazines she had flipped through and sighed. She stood up and stretched, then pulled out her phone and called Skulduggery. Fletcher and Caelan had given up on looking at each other and were both just sitting quietly looking at their hands. Tanith gave a small smile as the phone rang. Finally, just as she was about to hang up, Skulduggery picked up the phone.

"Hello Tanith."

"Hi Skull. Where are you?"

"I'm in the tree outside the window of the operating theatre." Tanith nearly dropped the phone, then she ran to the door of the operating theatre and knocked hard. Fletcher and Caelan both watched like eagles. There was a mechanic hum coming from the room, so she knocked harder.

"Tanith, you still there?" Skulduggery's voice came through the phone again, and Tanith knocked harder on the door. Nye opened it a little and looked at her with its milky eyes.

"What is it Miss Low?" Tanith peeked around it to see through the window at Skulduggery, who waved and said "Hi" into the phone. Nye tapped her lightly.

"What _is _it Miss Low?" She quickly looked away from the window and noticed Nye's hands, covered in blood.

"Uh…" Nye pushed her back through the door and shut it in her face. She shook herself and sat in the chair.

"Skulduggery, what happened to her?"

Fletcher and Caelan both jumped up and Tanith motioned for them to sit down. They slowly sat down and listened.

"What? Are you serious?... No I didn't think- Whaddya mean it wasn't serious? Skull, have you even seen her?... I know, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have…._Skulduggery!"_ The last word was a gasp. She looked at Fletcher and Caelan and then left the room. When she was out in the hallway, she looked around before whispering into the phone.

"You want to talk about this _now?_"

"Tanith, please…"

"No, Skull, listen to me. There are two boys in that waiting room who have been sitting there for the past three hours waiting for their beloved Valkyrie to come out of that theatre… Wait," something clicked inside Tanith. "That's why you didn't come into the waiting room isn't it."

"…" The very pointed silence said all. There was a small sigh and Skulduggery spoke again.

"Valkyrie…" His voice was melted chocolate, and it sent shivers down Tanith's spine. His voice was already so wonderful, but when he said her name, it sounded like dark chocolate being melted and poured over the top of gourmet dark chocolate ice cream. If ever a word was meant to be spoken, it was Valkyrie, and it was meant to be spoken by Skulduggery.

"Look, I don't want her to know anything yet, I just want to keep spending as much time as is humanly possible with her."

"Uh Skul? You're not human."

"Valkyrie is." Tanith melted a little inside.

"I'm not even going to argue with you," she said, "Because I would lose. You care about her that much." Tanith face-palmed and Skulduggery sighed again.

"Don't you face-palm at me Tanith Low." She could almost hear him wagging his finger at her. She raised her eyebrows.

"I'll do what I want at you thanks," she said and went for a walk. She needed some time to think about this.

* * *

Caelan glared at Fletcher.  
Fletcher glared at Caelan.  
Caelan glared at Fletcher.  
Fletcher glared at Caelan.

Tanith came in the door and was in the process of putting her phone in her pocket when she looked at the two of them. She rolled her eyes and knocked on the door to the operating theatre. The mechanical hum had stopped. Clarabelle opened the door and smiled at Tanith.

"It's the pretty lady, Nye, can she come in?" There was a grunt from inside and Nye appeared at the door. Its arms were bloody up to its elbows, but it seemed relaxed.

"I suppose there's nothing I can say to stop her." Its milky eyes looked her up and down. "You can come in, just make sure you're clean."

Tanith nodded very fast and pushed her way past both of them. Skulduggery watched her through the window as she ran over to Val who was slowly, gingerly sitting up. She threw her arms around Val as she reached her, and Val laughed carefully.

"What on earth even happened to you?" Tanith asked curiously. Valkyrie tilted her head (very similarly to the way Skulduggery did, Tanith noticed) and then went light red.

"Flathratree," she mumbled not looking directly at her. Tanith grabbed her shoulders and forced her to meet her eyes.

"Did you just say" She began incredulously, "That you fell through a tree?"

Valkyrie coughed and nodded slightly. Tanith looked stunned for a second then burst out laughing. Valkyrie smiled.

"What's funny? It was a particularly vicious tree!" Then she immediately stopped laughing and looked down. Tanith looked confused and turned around to see Fletcher and Caelan both standing at the doorway. She was tempted to leave just so she could say "I'll just let you guys some alone time…" but she would only be doing that to tease Val who really wasn't in the mood to be teased. Besides, she might come back to find severed heads and legs everywhere.

She looked out the window at Skulduggery, and frantically signalled for him to make an entrance of some description.

He chose the dramatic type.

The window smashed inwards and Skulduggery came diving in, rolling when he hit the floor and coming up with his gun pointed at Caelan's face, and his other hand in the shape of a gun pointing at Fletcher's. Both boys froze and Val chuckled quietly. Her laugh was like a reminder to Skulduggery that she was in the room, and he immediately turned around and hugged her tightly. Fletcher and Caelan hissed and Tanith glared at them, daring them to move one muscle. Both boys stayed put. Skulduggery was talking to Valkyrie quietly.

"I'm sorry Val, I should have caught you before you hit it.."

"No Skulduggery, it was my fault, I was the one trying to do stupid flips in between buildings…"

"I still should have caught you, you could have died-"

"It was a _tree_ Skulduggery. I would not have died, even if they had been taller buildings. I was the one showing off, I got hurt. My fault."

"I _always _show off, and I never get hurt. Obviously its my fault for showing off too much in front of you, and your deluded teenage brain thought that since I am in every way perfect, and never get hurt, you would be invincible. My fault."

"Self inflicted. My fault."

"My fault."

"My fault!"

"Oh just shut up the pair of you!" Tanith said loudly with a massive grin on her face. "Get out there and fight some crime or something. Or fight each other. Or whatever. Just go beyond my hearing range." Valkyrie grinned and started to slide down off the table. Her grin turned to a grimace as her feet touched the floor and all her cuts suddenly had weight placed on them. Skulduggery smoothly put her arm around him and led her out of the room, receiving a wink from Tanith as they left. Caelan muttered something about the time, and swept away. Fletcher was left standing there looking very forlorn, and Tanith couldn't help but once again feel a little sorry for him. She went over and, gently this time, placed her hand on his cheek. He looked her square in the eyes.

"I just want her to be happy." Tanith's heart crumpled. This was one of those situations where you knew who would be losing out for the sake of someone else's happiness, but that didn't make it any better. Fletcher would never truly be happy himself, but he would content himself with being happy for Val as she and Skul grew closer, as Tanith knew they would. It was sad actually. Once you got past the egotistic attitude to life, Fletcher was a caring, loving guy. She sighed sadly.

"Then you'll leave them alone. You know what's happening," she looked into the bright blue eyes as they stared back at her. "You're a smart guy Fletcher, you know what's going to happen. So for your sake, and hers, don't try and change it."

He nodded slowly and gave Tanith a hug. Normally Tanith wouldn't stand for being hugged by Fletcher, but this once, just this once, she hugged him back.

They both needed it.


End file.
